Pakistan: Key opposition politician granted bail

KARACHI, Pakistan (AA) - Pakistan's Supreme Court on Tuesday granted bail to a key opposition politician and his brother in a graft case, court records and local media reported.

Khawaja Saad Rafiq, a former central railway minister, and his brother Khawaja Salam Rafiq, an ex-health minister of the northeastern Punjab province, were granted bail against a surety bond of three million rupees ($19000) each, local broadcaster Dunya News reported.

In late 2018, the Khawaja brothers were arrested by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) corruption watchdog in a graft case related to a private housing scheme. Their bail was rejected by the Lahore Court last year.

Khawaja Saad Rafiq, a flamboyant leader of the center-right Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) of three-time Premier Nawaz Sharif, had contested Prime Minister Imran Khan in the July 2018 general elections in the northeastern city of Lahore but lost by a narrow margin of 600 votes.

In a later by-election, he won the same seat by a crushing 10,000-vote margin.